THOUSANDS of family food packs are being readied and pre-positioned by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) for quick delivery to families affected by tropical storm “Urduja,” especially residents of northern Cebu areas.
Leah Quintana, DSWD-7 information officer, said that family food packs had already been pre-positioned in several cities and municipalities in the province, even before the storm struck.
“A total of 8,000 family food packs were already pre-positioned in different warehouses in Dumanjug, Madredijos, Pilar, Poro, San Francisco, Tabogon and Toledo,” Quintana said.
Aside from these, around 30,000 family food packs were also on standby in their warehouse in Barangay Tingob, Mandaue City.
She also said that they had already met with officials of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas on Saturday to discuss their relief efforts on the affected families.
She also said that manual repacking of relief goods had been ongoing at the DSWD-7 warehouses to prepare also for the storm or typhoon forecasted by the weather bureau to hit the country on Christmas Day.
“Especially that according to Pagasa (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) that this typhoon is much stronger than Urduja, that is why we need to make necessary preparations,” she added.
Quintana also said that they had also started sending out the family packs to affected families such as those in evacuation centers in northern Cebu.
Aside from that, the DSWD-7 also sent 50 family food packs to the 900 stranded student delegates, who were stranded in Dumaguete City because of tropical storm “Urduja.”
Amaryllis Villarmia, Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) information officer, said that the student delegates attended the Regional Festival of Talents that started last December 14 and has ended yesterday, December 16.
Villarmia said there were also student delegates from Cebu, who were stranded in Dumaguete.
She said that she, however, did not know how many students stranded in Dumaguete were from Cebu.
She also said that 19 DepEd school divisions sent delegates for the event — elementary and high school students.
“As of now, the delegates were housed from different schools in Dumaguete, while the division is expected to take care of their needs,” Villarmia said.